How do you practice?

[Kurt R]

I'm just trying to see how some how ya'll can sit down on a drum set and really practice for 4+ hours at a time.

Right now I don't think I could do that at all. It dosen't matter what I'm doing but I just end up doing something else after around a hour. I really want to get up to THAT level but I just can't get to practing for a good amout of time. I can't do anything the same no what what it is for more than an hour w/o going on doing something else with out knowing it till after. I'm a lil crazy I guess.

Do you have your time all planned out?
Just go at it?

??

[no_bells]

Right now I spend 2 hours a day on a Real Feel in my apartment. I have a set routine that takes me an hour and a half to do and then I spend the last half hour on either a rudimental solo or one of the solos in Chafee's Rhythm and Meter. I make sure I do the whole two hours doing some simple ostinatos w/ the feet. I make sure I do this every morning just in case i'm not able to practice on a kit later in the day/night.

[Tom Hipskind]

Hey Kurt!

Good question, and like your Tony Williams question (I think it was you, anyway), this will garner many, many points of view and opinions.

And here's mine!

Your practice routine should, most importantly, be extremely FOCUSED. You needn't pay too close attention to how much time you spend in a practice session, but more to the point what you are trying to accomplish. You can't totally concentrate on what you are doing if you're constantly watching the clock, so you ought to first do yourself a favor and take the idea of the need to practice "for X-amount of hours" out of the equation.

One major thing I suspect it may be beneficial for you to remember during your practice is taking your time and working through everything SLOWLY and DELIBERATELY. When I was younger and had a shorter attention span, I tried to just race through everything. Obviously a very frustrating affair, especially if you're trying to figure out something very complicated, as is often the case with us drummers! As I got older and more experienced (and also had to learn other percussion instruments), the more I learned to "climb the mountain one step at a time", so to speak. It's one of the great ironies of practicing: the slower you take it, the more quickly and easily you see positive results!

So, if you were to take a couple of things you're working on now, I'd bet you could take what you do in an hour of somewhat focused, but kind of random practice, and slow it all down and work through it deliberately and completely...it'd take you probably about 3-4 hours but you'd have it down way way way way way way way way way way better! Plus, it will inspire you to work more and work harder the next time. Next thing you know you're spending all damn day in the shed! Not because you feel you have to but because you WANT to, and you are approaching it with a calm, patient tenacity. It has a snowball effect. But again, the point is not how much time, but WHAT YOU DO with that time (that damn Gandalf was really on to something! [img]wink.gif[/img] )

That's just sort of a couple of general rules of thumb, which I think (at least partially) gets to the crux of your initial problem--that you simply lose interest after about an hour of practicing.

Another mental thing to grapple with is the idea of actually figuring out what it is you want to accomplish in your practice time. That's a much tougher thing to figure out, but it's one of the really fun things about being a musician. You get to call your own shots as far as developing your own style! But, you do need a COMPLETE plan which involves working on the fundamentals (technique, rudiments, basic time playing, etc.) as well as working on stylistic things, i.e. ideas from your favorite drummers, soloing, fills, other fun stuff...not to mention a healthy dose of listening to everything you want and need to listen to.

Again, your question is so open-ended, I'm just giving you the tip of the iceberg here! I hope I'm helping.

-Tom

[peter c]

Tom is awesome, awesome, awesome!

I love that guy! Slow! Yes, he
knows the truth. Listen to him.

My best practice routines are ones
that are preceded by and with vis-
ualizations of what I was trying
to do. This is something that I
think I always did but I now am
very conscious of it. Billy talked
about this to me and I believe he
is absolutely right in saying that
it is very important to do before
you sit down to attempt something.

When I do this, there is no time
and the day can go by and I would
not even know it.

The visualization is really a goal
and the goal is half-achieved be-
fore you actually sit down.

Think about it.

[img]cool.gif[/img]